Chapter 14

The Big City

Everything went by fast.

Her heartbeats were fast as she watched as her Dad was trying to stop the car, but it didn't stop.

It kept going.

Kassidy and her parents were going down a hill at a very fast speed and Kassidy was breathing somewhat fast as she saw they were approaching a traffic light. She could only focus her attention straight ahead and didn't pay attention to what her parents were saying or how they were reacting. She then saw that the traffic light turned red and she then saw a huge truck driving forward as they went forward fast and before she could react, everything blacked out.

Kassidy gasped awake, breathing hard. As usual, she was sweating from these sorts of dreams and had to wipe the sweat off her face with her arm. After she wiped the sweat off her, she rubbed her eyes and she growled silently to herself. Damn it, why does that dream keep coming back to me as it pleases?

"Kass, you alright?"

Kassidy looked up from rubbing her eyes to look next to her to see that Marina was awake and she had a concern in her eyes. After they had their race with the boys they all roosted in a cave that was next to a beach and they were all worn out from the flying. As soon as they got themselves comfortable in here they immediately fell asleep.

Kassidy nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a daymare."

She then felt stinging on her shoulder. She looked at her shoulder and the burn was still on her. Yesterday she felt her burnt shoulder as they were flying but she didn't want her friends to worry about it, she was even lucky to not get a third-degree burn or worse. As soon as they found a roost, Kassidy took it upon herself to treat her injury by putting some water on it so it would cool down. She did try to find some aloe vera but there weren't any of them insight no matter how hard she looked. These sorts of burns usually lasted about two to three weeks so she didn't have to worry about it, considering it wasn't anything too serious. Taking care of her injury though would make the process much easier.

Marina looked at Shade. "We should get these two sleepyheads awake. We need to keep moving."

Kassidy stretched out her wings and yawned. "Couldn't agree more." She then heard snoring and she looked next to her and roosting a couple of feet away from Kassidy was Holden in a deep sleep and he had drool coming out of his mouth. Kassidy rolled her eyes while smirking. "I got this one."

Marina nodded and she went to go wake up Shade while Kassidy went to go wake up Holden. Kassidy landed next to Holden and when she did she looked at Marina and she was on a stalagmite near Shade. "Hey, Shade."

Shade murmured and he still had his eyes closed, even when Marina tapped his shoulder annoyed. She then looked at Kassidy and she smiled and Kassidy knew what she was about to do. Marina pushed Shade and when she did, Shade jerked awake.

"Hey," Shade grumbled to himself as he looked at Marina annoyed and Kassidy snorted. "What did you do that for?"

Marina shrugged her shoulders and she looked at him as if she didn't know what he was talking about. "Do what? You startled yourself awake."

"Come on, Shade," Kassidy said. "Now would be a good time to get situated here."

Shade stretched his wings out. "Okay," he then flew off the ceiling and landed near a stalagmite. "I'm up."

"Not all of us."

Kassidy looked at Holden and he was still asleep. She had the best idea to get him awake. She stuck her finger in her mouth to get some saliva on there and as soon as she had enough on it she stuck her finger in Holden's ear and gave him a wet willie. Holden moved a little as he scrunched his eyes confused. As he moved his hand to his ear, Kassidy got her finger out of his ear and tried to hold in her laughter. As Holden got his hand to his ear he started to feel it.

"What the hell?" Holden then all the sudden jerked awake and he cussed and then he all the sudden fell from the ceiling and hit the ground and as soon as he did, Kassidy, Marina, and even Shade started to laugh. Holden cried out disgusted as he was wiping his ear. He then looked up at Kassidy with a scowl. "You're sick, Kass!"

Kassidy shrugged her shoulders. "Then you should've woken up earlier."

Holden wiped his ear more. "I swear to god I think I'm going to have to keep one eye opened from now on."

Marina crossed her arms and she rolled her eyes as she still had a smirk on her face. "Have fun with that the next time you sleep." She, Kassidy, and Holden then flew to the stalagmite Shade was on and landed. "Okay, one of you call up your sound map and check your colony's migration route."

Kassidy breathed through her nose as she crossed her arms. "I wish I could, but someone in this very group here suggested that neither I nor he needed the sound map for the migration."

Kassidy narrowed her eyes at Holden and he had his hands up. "Okay, I didn't think we'd get ourselves stuck in a tight situation and get separated from the colony."

"That's the thing though, you barely think of anything. You always talk more rather than think more."

Holden crossed his arms and he narrowed his eyes. "Name me one time I talked more rather than think more."

"Oh, gee, I don't know," Kassidy said scornfully. "Maybe when you were talking to Chinook and his two little sidekicks about your dad and your life."

Shade cleared his throat to get Kassidy and Holden's attention and they looked at him. "I don't wanna be rude here, but I think we should focus on getting to the colony."

Kassidy and Holden looked at each other and then they looked back at Shade. Kassidy then sighed. "You're right, the colony is much more important than us bickering. The good news is, is that you have the sound map."

"Great, then call up your sound map, Shade," Marina said.

Shade looked at Marina with an uncomfortable expression on him. "I've never actually called up the sound map."

Marina laughed. "Yeah, right, quit playing games." Shade didn't change his expression and Marina looked at Kassidy and Holden and wasn't finding this funny now. "Tell me he's joking on my wing."

Holden looked at Kassidy and she could tell that he didn't know what to say. Kassidy sighed and decided to take it upon herself to answer her. "It's not a joke, Marina. He's never actually called it up before."

Marina looked at Shade with her eyes widened and he was smiling nervously at her. "Surprise?"

Marina scowled. "Holy sunlight, guys! Now you're telling me this?"

"Hey, I didn't know about this either until now," Holden said.

"Guys, its Shade's first time migrating," Kassidy said. "As much as this all sounds bat shit crazy, we still need to figure out the migration route."

"Yeah, it's my first time migrating," Shade said. "Besides it never came up before."

Holden slapped his palm against his face. "Great, so now how are we going to figure out the route, shake the map out of him?"

Marina breathed calmly as she looked at Holden. "There's a way to call up sound maps, Holden. It just takes concentration like taking your first flight." Marina looked back at Shade. "Alright, Shade, close your eyes and try to remember what your Mother's saying to you."

Shade closed his eyes and put his claws on his temples. They watched as Shade was concentrating on the sound map and as he did he was groaning and from the looks of it, Kassidy could tell that Shade wasn't liking what was happening. He then all the sudden opened his eyes very wide and he yelped. He then shook his head and looked at everyone. "Overload, I can't process it all."

Holden looked at Marina. "I got a better idea, why don't we just use your sound map?"

"Genius idea, Holden," Marina scoffed. "If we want to find my colony." She then put her palm on her forehead and grunted.

Kassidy put her hand on Shade's shoulder calmly and Shade looked at her. "It's alright, Shade, just try again. We don't have to see the whole map; we just need the first part of it."

Kassidy then put her hand down from his shoulder and as soon as she did, Shade closed his eyes and put his claws on his temples again and concentrated on pulling up the sound map. "I… see a human city nearby."

Kassidy, Holden, and Marina looked at each other and they all knew what they were thinking. The big city.

"We'll start there," Marina blurted out and she was about to take off as Shade opened his eyes.

"Hang on, Marina," Kassidy said and everyone looked at her. "Aren't you forgetting something? I still need to do that sight-seeing spell on all you guys."

Shade sighed. "Kass, maybe it wouldn't hurt if you didn't do that spell for one day. I mean what's the worst that can happen?"

"I really don't like that-"

"Come on, Kass. One day won't hurt anybody, just one day and then you can keep doing that spell as long as you want."

Kassidy thought about it but she wasn't too sure that it would be a good idea. What if someone really was trying to see through their sight to see what was going on? Although maybe it wouldn't hurt if she didn't do it for once… no, it wasn't a good idea.

But then Kassidy thought of something and looked at everyone. "How about this: for half a day I won't use that spell on you guys but when half the day is up I will do that spell, deal?"

"That-"

"Sounds fair enough for me," Marina said interrupting Shade.

Shade looked at Marina with his eyes narrowed. "Hey!"

"Eh, I don't care," Holden said. "As long as we get to the colony without losing any of our body parts then I'm all in for it."

Kassidy smirked and looked at Holden. "Then big city, here we come."

"Okay, I spy with my little eye something white."

Holden was trying to pass the time with a game to keep them preoccupied while migrating to the city and Kassidy was fine with it but she wanted to focus on finding the city. She wanted to get there as soon as possible and hopefully be able to meet up with the colony. Even though she wanted to find the city she still played the game with her friends.

"Easy, it's the stars," Marina said. "You're making things way too easy, Holden."

Holden sighed. "And once again you guessed correctly."

"Alright, Shade's turn."

"Okay," Shade began to look around him for something that could be tricky for all three of them to guess and as he did he used his sound vision. After a minute of silence, he gasped and then he smiled. "Guys, I spy something nocturnal."

Kassidy then began to hear something. It sounded like the flutter of wings, it wasn't one set though. It was many. Kassidy used her echo vision to where the sounds were coming from and it came back with a colony. Her eyes then lit up and she smiled as she could see hundreds of bats shimmering across the tree line.

"It's a colony," Kassidy said as Holden and Marina used their sound of web to where Kassidy and Shade saw the colony and they smiled as well. "Is it the Silverwings?"

"I think it's them," Shade said. "It must be!"

"I hope they like me," said Marina. "How should I introduce myself? Hi, I'm a friend of the bats who got your roost burned down."

"Or you can just say hi," Holden said.

Shade laughed aloud with delight as he put on a burst of speed. "Come on!" Kassidy, Holden, and Marina followed Shade and they all tried to catch up to the colony. "Hey! Hello! It's me, Shade!"

Three bats toward the rear banked and looked back. Kassidy furrowed her brow and she used her echo vision on them and when she saw what they looked like she immediately knew that it wasn't the Silverwings. Yes, the wings were the right shape, but the bodies were a little large. They were luxuriously furred, with handsome sideburns on their faces. Plus she didn't even recognize those three bats.

"It's not them," Kassidy sighed.

"No," Shade breathed in disappointment as they drew closer.

Holden looked at them confused. "What are they then?"

"From the looks of it, I'd say they're Graywings," Marina said.

One of the Graywings from the trio that stopped flew closer to the friends as they stopped in midair. As soon as he got close enough he stopped in midair as well. "Where are you four headed?"

"We're looking for the Silverwing colony," Shade said. "Have you seen them?"

"We came in from the northwest. We saw a few other colonies, but not the Silverwings. Which way were they headed?"

"South down the coast, toward a city."

"Probably not far ahead of us, then. You get lost?"

"Two nights ago, in a storm."

"Bad luck. Well, I don't envy you, going into the city."

"What do you mean by that?" Holden asked.

The Graywing looked at Holden. "It's not a good place for bats." He then looked back at Shade. "Look, we're going around the city, but we'll continue south after that. You're free to come with us for a while if you like."

Kassidy saw up ahead, mothers and fathers flying with their children, veering off quickly to catch food as they went. She and Marina glanced at each other. Travelling with another colony. Would that make things complicated if they did travel with them? Kassidy couldn't comprehend what might happen.

All at once the Graywing veered away from them, staring at Marina's band. "She's banded," he hissed.

"So?" Holden said.

The Graywing looked at Holden and he shook his head and then he narrowed his eyes. "Are you for real blind?" He circled from a distance. "It's bad luck, very bad luck. She's been touched by humans. Didn't your mother teach you anything?"

"As a matter of fact, she did teach me something. She taught me how to dance for a while until she started to drink a lot."

The Graywing stared at him confused.

Kassidy furrowed her brow at the Graywing as she could tell that Marina looked sorry for not hiding her band. How dare he accuse Marina like that? Didn't his mother teach him anything? She didn't think the Graywing noticed her nor did she care. She pushed aside Shade and Holden and kept staring at the Graywing with her brow furrowed and she wanted to make sure she didn't get out of control here.

"Don't talk about my friend like that. You have no idea what she's been through and how could you possibly be like that towards her? Her band is not cursed and there is nothing bad about it."

The Graywing looked at Kassidy with his jaw dropped as he looked at Kassidy. He had fear in his eyes as he kept looking at Kassidy and as he did, his two companions joined him and they were looking at her shocked as well. She didn't like this one bit.

One of the Graywings being shorter than the other two looked at his companions. "Night and stars, she looks like a demon…"

"A foul creature," The tallest Graywing said.

The one Graywing that was talking to them looked back at Shade. "Are you out of your mind having some twisted bat with you? She does not look normal."

Shade furrowed his brow. "She's our friend and she's neither a demon nor a foul creature. Not everyone has to look normal."

"Normal or not, Silverwing, those two are not welcome to travel with us." Kassidy bared her teeth angrily at the Graywing and that got his attention and he looked nervous. She then felt the flame and she immediately did the same process as usual before it got any worse. The Graywings looked at each other and then the one talking continued. "However, you and your friend here may come with us."

Kassidy and Marina glanced at each other and then looked back at the boys and they saw that they were looking at each other and then at the Graywings that were flying in the distance. Shade looked back at the trio of Graywings and furrowed his brow again. "If they can't come, I'm not coming either. They're both our friends."

Marina looked at Shade surprised as Kassidy looked a little surprised, kind of knowing that Shade would choose his friends over leaving them. She smiled on the inside.

"Same here, man," Holden said. "And FYI: I think you all need better hobbies."

The three Graywings furrowed their brows at Holden. "Suit yourself," the one Graywing talking to them said. "But I'd watch out for them if I were you." The Graywing then looked at Kassidy. "Especially her."

Kassidy furrowed her brow and as she did, the Graywings got tense and then darted back to their colony without another word. Then on cue from their elder, they swung inland, away from the water, away from them. "Assholes," Kassidy muttered.

Shade looked at Kassidy. "Hey, don't worry about them. They don't know what they're talking about."

"I know that…"

Marina sighed disappointedly. "Sorry… I forgot to cover the band. I thought they were yours."

"It doesn't matter," Shade said. "They wouldn't have let you come along anyways if they found out about your band."

"I don't get some of these animals," Holden said as he then looked at Kassidy. "You've been getting a lot of criticism lately from some of them. Is there a particular reason maybe you have what you have on right now?"

Kassidy furrowed her brow at Holden. "Are you now having doubts about me?"

"What? No! I'm just asking if-"

"Maybe you should've gone with them," Kassidy said tersely.

"That's not what I mean."

"Nothing's stopping you."

"I'm not leaving-"

"You think I need anyone's company? I'm basically your average lone wolf you see every single day! I'm used to being alone!" Kassidy's eyes were hard as she stared at Holden and her friends looked at her shocked. Kassidy tried to calm down and didn't want the flame to burst. She breathed… and breathed… and breathed. She then sighed looking down. "I'm sorry…"

That was too close of a call for her. Controlling her anger was now getting harder than she realized. She couldn't believe she said that Holden should've gone with them. What was she talking about? Of course, he needed to stay with them, she said she would transform Holden back into a human and they had a deal and she wasn't going to break that deal.

"No… I'm sorry," Holden said and Kassidy looked at him surprised. "I shouldn't have said that."

Shade flew in between Kassidy and Holden and tried to smile. "Hey, we're all in this together. So let's continue on and find my colony and forget about this."

Marina smiled as well. "Yeah, and besides who needs those Graywings anyways? We got a colony to search for."

Kassidy and Holden smiled. "Then let's keep going," Kassidy said.

The four of them continued on their way to the city. Marina then looked at Shade. "Sorry, they weren't your colony."

"Yeah," Shade said.

"Catching up to the colony can't be that be difficult can it?" Holden said. "I mean the map seems like it's doing the job."

Shade smiled gratefully at Holden and then they continued to their destination. Then after a couple of minutes, Kassidy could see a ghostly brightening on the horizon, as if the sun were about to rise. Only she knew this wasn't the sun.

Kassidy smiled as they approached closer. "Lady and gentlemen, we're now officially arriving in the city."

The city was much bigger than Kassidy could've realized. Never had she ever been in the city and the lights were so bright that Kassidy had to scrunch her eyes a little. It'd been a while since she last looked at light of any sort-even though she looked at the sun with the boys. It was exactly how Kassidy pictured it: bright and noisy. Cars were honking in all the streets and this was way different from how she was used to the cars in Ohio. She's always wanted to visit the city but not live in it. She was more of the country girl than the city girl.

She breathed in the city air and this definitely made her miss the countryside.

As Kassidy and her friends were flying, Kassidy took the time to look at herself on the building windows. Everything looked fine, apart from the burn on her shoulder. She noticed that the boys were looking at the building windows as well and she saw that Holden and Shade looked amazed by what they were seeing. Marina smiled at them as they were looking around.

"This is so cool," Shade said.

"Apart from the brightness and the noises, I'd say this was worth coming here," Holden said.

"As much as this is cool guys we still need to focus on finding that tower," Kassidy said.

Shade told them on their way to the city that their next landmark had something to do with a tower and a metal cross. He also said he heard bonging. Kassidy hoped that they would find the right one. She also hoped she made a good decision on not using her spell on her friends right away like she originally planned to.

"Agreed," Marina said.

They continued to fly for a while searching for a tower and as they flew, Kassidy could feel the burn on her shoulder kick in more and she hissed silently. She didn't want it to distract her flying and she kept on focusing. She kept telling herself to focus and not let the pain get to her. Whenever she had an injury during anything she sucked it up and wouldn't cry like a baby would when they got a small injury.

"Hey," Kassidy looked to see that Holden was looking at her concerned, "how's that burnt shoulder?"

Kassidy smirked at Holden not wanting him to worry. "It's fine, don't worry about me. I'm used to a lot of injuries at this point. Besides no pain no gain right?"

Holden chuckled. "Right."

Kassidy then noticed something and she looked closely and there was no doubt about it. She saw a tower that looked like it fit the description Shade said. "Guys, I think I see the tower!"

The four friends made their way to the tower Kassidy mentioned and as soon as they got close enough to it they all landed on some wooden slats nailed haphazardly across a gabled window. From what Kassidy could tell, this was a clock tower and it was almost ten o' clock. Kassidy then began spitting in her hand so she could cool down the burn that was on her arm and as soon as her hand touched the burn the burn started to cool down a little. All and all Kassidy was glad she could finally treat it.

Marina sighed relieved. "Finally."

Shade looked around him with a frown up at the turret and Kassidy could see that something was wrong. "Guys, I'm not sure this is the same tower on the sound map." Shade said.

"Sure it is, Smalls," Holden said. "You said it was a tower right? So it has to be it."

"That's the problem though, it's a tower but it doesn't have a cross."

They all looked up and they saw that there was no cross on the tower. Kassidy knew that Shade was right about this not being the right tower. How could she have not seen that? Kassidy, Holden, and Marina looked back at Shade.

"Well… did you see any other tower in your little sightseeing tour?" Marina asked.

Shade looked at Marina. "Uh, no, but-"

"Okay, then what else could it be?"

The big hand landed on the Roman numeral that was twelve and then the clock tower started to ring. Bong! Bong! Bong! The four friends covered their ears and yelled in pain as the clock kept ringing. It was so loud that Kassidy thought her eardrums would burst. They all then fell from their spots but then regained their flight.

Holden shook his head furiously. "Damn it, I should've seen that coming!"

"But that proves it," Marina said. "Shade said he heard a loud bong."

They all flew back up to where they landed and Shade still looked unsure as they landed back to where they were. "This isn't it."

"Then where is it? Honestly, guys, I feel like I'm doing all the work around here."

Kassidy furrowed her brow at Marina. "You're doing all the work? I'm helping out here and I'm the one that found this tower, which Shade clearly points out at the last second that this isn't the right one."

"And I've got the sound map," Shade used his thumb to point at himself. "So you're pretty much not the only one doing work around here and I couldn't tell if there was a cross or not as we got here."

"Maybe you should've been much more specific with the landmark and then maybe we would've found it by now," Holden said.

Shade scowled at Holden. "What else is there to say? Besides you haven't done a lot of work like the rest of us have been!"

Holden scowled at Shade. "I've been trying to find the tower like the rest of you have been and this whole situation just-"

"Stinks!" Marina interjected.

Holden looked at Marina confused. "That's not even close to what I was about to say."

Kassidy thought of the reason why Marina said that and started to sniff the air and as soon as she did she covered her nose at the thick unpleasant odor wafting out from the window. "No, guys, it smells like crap!"

Shade and Holden sniffed the air and they then covered their noses. "Pee ew," Shade said.

Holden started to gag and he looked like he was about to barf. "Oh, god! It smells worse than my Grandma's perfume! Kass, you're right, it does smell like crap."

All the sudden two wings grabbed Shade and Marina and they yelped and got dragged inside the gabled window. Kassidy and Holden were shocked when they looked at the window where Shade and Marina were grabbed.

"Oh, my god," Kassidy said out loud.

Kassidy and Holden then yelped when wings grabbed them and dragged them inside the gabled window as well. All that was left behind were feathers.

A/N- Really nothing to say besides that this is chapter fourteen. I'm just glad I got this chapter done with. Hope you enjoyed it.